2022 was also the start of EnergyDrive – and what a start it was!
In March 2022, six months after the installation of our very first charging station with regular and fast chargers, EnergyDrive – a 100% subsidiary of EnergyVision – was founded. EnergyDrive provides solutions for charging electric cars, from public to private home and company charging points. Along with their unburdening model (customers never invest, we do), and EnergyVision also provides EnergyDrive with energy, meaning its customers can charge their cars at any time using cheap, local green electricity. Here is a rapid overview of EnergyDrive's first year.
Company charging stations
Following our charging station in Brussels, we were contracted for five charging stations in Flanders, including in Ghent and Antwerp. Each company gets a free charging station, along a whole series of charging cards. We also supply green energy from our solar installations. Customers can charge at any time of day (at charging points from 22 to 350 KW) and can rely on fixed, predictable rates.
Brussels Minister Alain Maron inaugurates our public charging stations
Towards the end of 2022, on a cold winter morning, one of our EnergyDrive charging stations in the municipality of Etterbeek (Sibelga's ChargyClick programme) was officially inaugurated by none other than Brussels Minister Alain Maron. The aim is to give every inhabitant of Brussels access to a charging point less than 150 metres from their front door as quickly as possible. Within this tender, EnergyDrive installed some 492 public charging points within the Brussels Region. Once these charging points are in place, they can be used rather intensively, with several charging cycles per day, seven days a week. And the best part: with us, charging is as cheap as it gets. This is the advantage of green energy. It is local, predictable and unaffected by international price fluctuations. For example, our customers were able to charge their electric vehicles all year round at an all-in rate of EUR 0.24/kWh, despite high energy prices elsewhere.
EnergyDrive partners with Cambio
By the end of 2022, EnergyDrive was managing more than 800 charging points across the country, including several ultra-fast chargers. Alongside charging stations, EnergyDrive also distributes charging cards. In the summer of 2022, EnergyDrive signed a global deal with Cambio, meaning that all Cambio electric cars in Brussels, Flanders and Wallonia are now powered by EnergyDrive.
The smartest lighting pole!
Loading cars in big cities is not always obvious. People do not have a garage or a driveway, and sometimes there is simply no room in the street.
EnergyDrive therefore developed EnergyLight, a compact but smart charging point that can be built on or in a public lighting pole. We also patented the application and then effectively launched it on the market.
In this compact arrangement, the structure of the lighting pole is used to incorporate all the technology in the tube cavity, or the charging station is hung on a lighting pole along 2 sides. This aesthetic solution ensures less intensive use of space, without compromising the smart functionalities of the charging post. The charge post communicates via the use of a charge card or an ad hoc payment module on the charge post.
And so EnergyDrive is once again a little more visible on the street - and more user-friendly than ever.
Investing in charging points, software and people
While the connection between green energy and charging points is an essential part of our strategy, it is not enough to simply invest in the installation of charging points and stations alone. That is why EnergyDrive has invested in great deal more over the past year, in areas including software, for example. We took over a platform that we are now expanding further, partly for increased user-friendliness, but also to maximize the connection with our green electricity. And, of course, we have invested in people. While EnergyDrive started as an idea, it has become a real team. Among others, Indy, Jonas and Stijn already had extensive experience in the sector before joining, while Jochen De Smet was also on board from the start. Jochen is Chair of EV Belgium, the sector federation for zero emission mobility in Belgium.
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Editing: Justin Noyez
With the collaboration of: Michèle Adams, Thomas Dauwe, Koen Decourt, Sander Wille, Klaas Michielssens, Maqsud Bilal, Laurens De Greef, Laurien Godfroid
Design and styling: Ilse Maes
Publisher responsible: Maarten Michielssens
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